Anyone know what yellow page listings they are using? They don't seem consistant with either ppc, or any online yp or physical yp I'm aware of, and it's not ppc as there are people listed who don't know what that stands for.

The way Barry tells it, the search engines are all negotiating with him for a slice of his pie.

"CitySearch is currently being courted by Google, Yahoo and MSN to have their huge national pipes linked to the local... All the national portals, all search engines are saying they would like to attack the local," Diller said. "The difference for CitySearch is it's... one thing to geo-tag things, it's another thing to actually have the data."

Senior Member

"I don't think our advertisers would like it at all," Mr. Marshall said. "They don't have the sophistication to manage a bidding environment, and they don't have the time."

This is the correct answer. Local businesses simply do not have the time or inclination to pay for web advertising. Maybe high-margin, highly-competitive markets like mortgages or autos, but not general merchandise or services.